Digitising Social Care Newsletter - Dec 2022
Welcome to the latest update from the Digitising Social Care team at NHS England. We're a joint unit of staff from DHSC and NHS England's Transformation Directorate working on helping the adult social care sector benefit from digital innovation in order to deliver safer and better care. If you have any feedback, questions or need more information you can contact the team here.
Season's Greetings from the team!
As we reach the end of 2022, I would like to take the opportunity to thank everyone who has supported our work to deliver on our ambition to digitally transform the adult social care sector this year. On the 1 December 2021, People at the Heart of Care was published. This paper outlined our plans for sector reform and recognised the transformative potential of technology in achieving this. One year on, I wanted to take the opportunity to reflect on some of the highlights of our work so far:
As of September 2022, 52% of care providers now have Digital Social Care Record (DSCR) solutions in place, up from 45% in March 2022. Our list of assured suppliers continues to grow with nine already in place.
98% of ICS have benefitted from our funding to date to support the scaling and piloting of care technologies locally, including in people’s own homes. We’ve delivered pilot digital skills training and published a draft digital skills framework.
We’ve continued to drive closer working between health and social care – nearly 800 care providers now have access to GP Connect and there are over 16,000 active NHSmail accounts.
We know that none of this would be achievable without the support, hard work and enthusiasm of people working in the social care sector, at every level. On behalf of our entire team, thank you!
Wishing you all a happy festive season and we look forward to continuing to work together with you in 2023
Alice Ainsworth - Deputy Director for Social Care Tech Policy (NHS/DHSC joint policy unit)
Voices from the sector - Community Integrated Care
This month we have been chatting to Joanna Scammell and Paul Thompson from Community Integrated Care (CIC). As one of the biggest health and social care charities in the UK their goal is to: to help people lead better, fuller lives in the community through high-quality care services.
CIC were very early adopters of digital tools to support care and over the past twelve years have implemented an extensive infrastructure which now underpins the way they operate. "There are three main goals to how technology supports our work." Joanna told me "For the people we support it's about promoting independence, choice and control, for our workforce it frees up time to care and gives them back their own time and lastly it helps us identify efficiencies in how we run manage our organisation"
"We've come from no technology and everything paper-based to a point where everything is now digital." Paul explained "The lesson we learned from our digital transformation is to make sure we brought our staff along with us on the journey, they were the ones we were asking to use the tech after all. And of course, not to exclude the people we support"
CIC's approach to digital adoption has always been to start with the problem they needed to address, and then look at potential solutions, involving the staff and people they care for in the decision-making process. This means that technology is not something that's 'done-to', and everyone understands how it can benefit them.
"Our journey to digital maturity has involved a culture change" said Paul "we started small, knowing that we needed to bring everyone in our team along with us for the transformation to work. They needed to feel comfortable using digital tools and understand how this could benefit them. Our starting point was to simply move away from paper-based payslips and instead send them out via email."
Now staff use mobile devices to make voice notes at the point of care delivery, they have access to blended e-learning and use a digital social care record system to ensure that they have the right information at their fingertips.
"As a sector we need to be working together to fully derive all the benefits of digital transformation" Joanna concluded.
CIC, like all the early adopters we speak to, are keen to support fellow providers on their digital journey so that the sector can reap the long-term benefits and deliver efficient and better quality to care to people.
See how Community Integrated Care's technology enabled care approach is supporting them to deliver higher quality, safer care:
How will the digital switchover affect the care sector?
What is the digital switchover?
The privately-owned public telephone service currently runs on a copper-wired analogue system. Work is underway to upgrade this system to full digital capability. This digital switchover is being rolled out and managed by the telecommunications industry with the aim of having a fully digital network by 2025.
Switching to digital has potential impacts for people who use telecare services (monitored alarm systems at home) as traditional devices that connect to the public telephone network such as telephone handsets and telecare units will need to be unplugged from the analogue line and reconnected to the new digital line. Some devices may need to be upgraded or replaced to ensure they work reliably on the digital line.
What are we doing to support the transition?
We're working to support telecare service providers, telecare suppliers and the telecommunications sector in ensuring that the people who use telecare services are very much at the centre of the switchover plans.
We commissioned some research to understand how aware the telecare sector is of the switchover, and the associated opportunities and challenges. We have now published a Stakeholder Action Plan which sets out work underway.
What happens now?
There are some key questions to ask yourself if you use or provide telecare services. If the care service you provide includes provision for people to access telecare alarm devices, have you discussed the switchover with your service provider or equipment supplier? Does your telephone provider know you have service users using telecare devices linked to their telephones? Issues like these are also discussed in the Action Plan.
The transition to digital will lay the foundations for a next generation of telecare services that will support more personalised and early preventive interventions. However, telecare is still mainly provided through analogue equipment and the Action Plan seeks to encourage the telecare and telecommunications sectors to work together to mitigate risks and encourage understanding of the switchover.
The Caring View
The Caring View was started in 2021 by Mark Topps and Adam Purnell as an exclusive YouTube show, aimed at highlighting best practice for care managers during the COVID19 pandemic. It has since grown into a podcast, featuring exclusive interviews and content and a livestreamed show across LinkedIn, Facebook and YouTube. Every week Mark and Adam invite guests onto the show to share their expertise, discussing hot topics, best practice examples and the latest care news.
When the show began, both Mark and Adam were Registered Managers. Adam has since become the Director of Social Care at the Institute of Health and Social Care Management (IHSCM) and Mark is a Regional Business Manager for the largest reablement service in the United Kingdom.They're proud to describe The Caring View as the only consistent and honest weekly chat show aimed at raising awareness of the social care sector.
We were delighted when Adam and Mark invited our two colleagues, Emma Harris (Assistant Director of Programmes for Digital Social Care Transformation) and Caroline Day (Regional Implementation Lead for the East of England), onto the show to discuss how we are working with ICSs to support digital adoption. If you're looking for a straightforward, accessible explanation on what we're doing and how providers can access the funding and support available then it's definitely worth a watch, here's the episode:
Supporting smaller care providers on their digital journey
When it comes to supporting the adult social sector to adopt a digital approach, we know that one size does not fit all. The needs of smaller care providers are different to those of larger and national providers who face different challenges to digitisation.
Identifying how owners and managers of small care homes can be supported on their digital journey is the subject of research undertaken by Dr Caroline Green at King’s College London and Palvi Dodhia, COO of Serene Care Ltd. They interviewed a range of managers and owners for the project, which was supported by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Applied Research Collaboration South London (NIHR ARC South London) at King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust. The results lay out recommendations and approaches to ensure that smaller provider's needs are understood and reflected in the overall strategy for digital transformation of the adult social care sector.
NHS Mail - are you logging in regularly?
Did you know that NHSmail user accounts that are not pro-actively used or monitored present a security risk to the NHSmail platform?
With this in mind, there are some new changes to how inactive accounts are managed, all with the aim of keeping NHSmail safe and secure. Currently, any NHSmail account that has not been used for 90 days is classed as inactive. If it stays inactive for a further 90 days it’s then deleted.
This has now been changed. From now on accounts that have not been used for 30 days will be classed as inactive and if this continues for a further 30 days then they are deleted (in other words they will now be deleted after 60 days of non-use). It’s important you log into the NHSmail portal, or O365 application, use O365 applications (eg Outlook) or send an email, every 30 days to prevent your account being deleted. A deleted account can be restored within 30 days by contacting : National Administration Service (NAS) – NHSmail Support.
If you’re on extended leave (eg maternity leave) it's best to to disable your account (you can do this for up to 18 months) to prevent it being deleted while you’re away. Just contact National Administration Service (NAS) – NHSmail Support for advice on how to do this if you are unsure or if you want to close your NHSmail account
NHSmail - how to set up and account or find support
If you're a care provider with questions about NHS mail, then drop in to one of the regular sessions taking place every other Wednesday between 2pm and 2:30pm. No need to book, just use this link.
You can also find info on how adult social care providers can apply for an NHS Mail account here
Call for AI-driven ideas
The NHS AI Lab want health and social care colleagues to send their challenges, or ideas for AI-driven technology, to see if there is an AI solution for them.
If selected, applicants will be invited to work with the Lab’s Skunkworks team on a proof of concept project exploring whether AI can help, or offered a series of workshops aimed at increasing understanding of AI in health and social care.
The AI Skunkworks run short projects to experiment with AI and find opportunities to use to improve care. Read about their previous projects on the Transformation Directorate website.
The deadline for applications is 31 January. To apply, or ask the team any questions, email england.aiskunkworks@nhs.net or see the Transformation Directorate website for more information.
Help us shape the future of the Digital Social Care Website
How can Digital Social Care better meet the needs of the sector? Complete this short survey and share your thoughts on how the site should be developed to support you on your digital journey.
How can I get in touch?
One way to get involved in our work is to by join our Future NHS Collaboration platform (you will need to register to sign in). Where you can also find a range of helpful resources and information as well as have an opportunity to ask questions and give us feedback.
You can contact the Digitising Social Care team at england.adultsocialcare@nhs.net (We'd love to hear what content you would like to see in this newsletter so please get in touch and tell us)
And lastly, please feel free to share this newsletter with colleagues and encourage them to subscribe for updates.